1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bearing support assemblies, and more particularly to bearing support assemblies with radial spring and damping elements.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of bearings are known for use in supporting rotating components. For example, in gas turbine engines, the spools are supported by bearings for rotation of rotor blades in the compressor and turbine. Over the wide range of operational speed of a gas turbine engine, or other systems with wide ranges of operational speed, it can be beneficial to include mechanical equivalent spring stiffness to the bearing supports to optimize the rotor critical speed system and also to include damping to the spring to reduce rotor radial excursion as it passes through these critical speeds. For example, during startup of a gas turbine engine, the shaft and bearings may pass through two or more critical rotor natural frequencies (called critical speeds). If one or more of these critical speeds presents in the operational speed range, it could damage the engine. Radial springs can be provided to tune these interfered critical speeds outside of the operational speed range. The damper element is added to the spring to soften and/or dampen the effects of resonance to allow the engine to pass through these critical frequencies without damage.